I've always wondered, why did Blizzard choose to create an expansion based upon asian culture when the game got famous thanks to western culture? Why did they have to radically change something that was working great so far?

Not gonna happen. Banned.

The thread is going strong. Looks like Elysia the mod FAILED to obstruct free speech.

Perhaps the OP can now be un-banned.

To answer the OP's Q:
No, I don't think it was a bad idea to do an Asian expansion. I did not like MOP, and I did not like the way Asian theme was done, but it was more about lazy and low quality implementation on Blizzard's part. Asian theme could have been awesome if it did not overshadow Warcraft itself and if it were done right.

It wasn't a bad idea, alot of people love the theme, and in many ways I can see why.

However I don't realy feel it as much as I did past themes, don't get me wrong, the areas are beautifully well made, but I don't know, I guess theme is a very subjective thing and I just preffered past expansions in that regard, personally I'm looking forward to a change of theme.

And yeah, I don't feel like people should be looking down on others for not liking a particular theme as much as others, it seems very naive to assume everybody is going to like the exact same things and that people don't have preferences.

It wasn't a bad idea, alot of people love the theme, and in many ways I can see why.

However I don't realy feel it as much as I did past themes, don't get me wrong, the areas are beautifully well made, but I don't know, I guess theme is a very subjective thing and I just preffered past expansions in that regard, personally I'm looking forward to a change of theme.

And yeah, I don't feel like people should be looking down on others for not liking a particular theme as much as others, it seems very naive to assume everybody is going to like the exact same things and that people don't have preferences.

A very fair view point. I felt the same way about BC in places. I didn't much like some of the sci fi themes in Nehterstorm/Tempest Keep, or some of the machiens the Legion was building, but while the theme in places I didn't enjoy, I still liked the expansion. While Valley is a bit silly for my tastes, I love the rest of MoP but can understand that it's not everybody's cup of tea. Just irks me when people just say it's 'lol kung fu pandaland.'

I wasn't a fan of MOP at first, especially after Cataclysm left me really wanting as far as content went. Don't get me wrong, Cata was the first time I broke out of my standard casual raid environment and went to a top 100 guild, but in the end all it did was make me realize why I hated the people typically found in those top 100 guilds. Required raid times, regimented play, and a lot of unnecessary bad mouthing that really detracted from the game as a whole.

Fast forward to MOP and you have the other end of the spectrum, LFR has completely eliminated the need to raid in any form of a progression guild. I can see the content and get decent gear, without being on a strict schedule, the unnecessary bad mouthing is still there though. It works for me, but I can see how people can be frustrated by this. Especially the younger and/or more "serious raiding" crowd that put a lot more into raiding than I will ever comprehend, whatever their reason they want raiding to separate them from the casuals but that isn't the road blizz is traveling. That is the only real thing I can see as a problem with MOP, depending on what camp you belong to you will hate or love MOP.

Everything else, for me at least, has been a vast improvement. Just about every quest line tells a story, there is a central baddy and theme to just about everything. While I hate troll dungeons, and not a huge fan of the Asian theme, so far ToT isnt to bad (though I havent cleared much of it). The sheer amount of daily quests provides you with more time sync content than you will ever reasonably require. Yes once you do it there is little need to go back, but thats why you have alts/other games. Overall I'd call MOP a success, not as great as WOTLK (only because of the established lore in WOTLK), but the artwork, story, and general feel of the expansion brought back the epic feeling without the not so fun part of making it feel like a part time job.

The thread is going strong. Looks like Elysia the mod FAILED to obstruct free speech.

Perhaps the OP can now be un-banned.

To answer the OP's Q:
No, I don't think it was a bad idea to do an Asian expansion. I did not like MOP, and I did not like the way Asian theme was done, but it was more about lazy and low quality implementation on Blizzard's part. Asian theme could have been awesome if it did not overshadow Warcraft itself and if it were done right.

If what you say is true that Blizzard looked at a movie aimed at a younger audience than their subscribers, which are notorious for going out of fashion as quickly as they come in, saw that it was popular and then took four years to develop and release a theme based on that movie they deserve every single sub loss.

I used to doubt but then I noticed WotLK is based on How To Train Your Dragon, TBC is Monsters Inc. and even Thrall is based on Shrek.

To prove the similarities all the Blizzard concepts massively predate the films so it must be true.

And yes, the world of warcraft has always been in a medieval western setting, incorporating eastern aspects is fine (they've done so before) basing EVERYTHING in an entire expansion on the east, including actual philosophical Buddhist ideals in a game revolved around killing was downright retarded.,

So, err, Mongols, Jamaicans, and Native Americans are "medieval western setting"? I hope you do recognize what races I'm talking about.

The thing that a lot of players don't seem to understand is that Pandaria has been a continent with no outside influences for the past 10,000 years. In no way is it going to have an entire culture that is the exact same as anywhere else on Azeroth.

Whether you personally like the aesthetics of Pandaria or the lore or whatever, is entirely subjective though. Hell, you may just hate because you can't get over the idea of playable Pandaren.

Personally, I love the whole look of Pandaria, even Dread Wastes lol Going to Rikkitun Village for the first time, hearing the music and doing the quests for the sprites, that was one of my best quest hubs when leveling up in all honesty.

Personally I don't like the extreme Asian drift that the Pandaren have. I like playing Aion and Tera, but this has no place in Wow lore. If they want to make new places seem different from the original Azeroth going with something like Outland is a much better idea. There are limits to how much real cultures should influence a fantasy game and MOP pushes that limit too far. How would people react if the next expansion had a tropical island with races of black skinned humanoids living in tribal soceity? Wouldn't be pretty.

lol, yeah. Seems odd that the guy you quoted doesn't like that the Pandaren culture is asien themed, and yet doesn't seem to realize that EVERY culture in WoW has its roots in real world religion.

Tauren: Native Americans.

Humans: A mold between medieval humans and modern. The church of the holy light is very clearly based off of christian churches, but with the Light rather than God.

Dwarves: Classic tolkein-esque dwarves with scottish traits.

Night Elves: I'm told that their society has some similiarities to pre industrialized Japan, not sure if that's true or to what extent.

Goblins: an extreme form of consumer driven capitalism.

The Vrykul: vikings.

Orcs: I've heard they have some similarities to native African cultures, though like the night elves I don't know enough about that subject to tell if it's true or just BS.

Gilneas: Victorian era england, but with Werewolves.

Trolls: Jamaican.

This is not, in any way shape or form, a new thing with MoP. And of course the place is vastly different, it's been hidden away from the rest of Azeroth for 10,000 years. What, Earth can have wildly different cultures that developed isolated from one another but Azeroth can't? And I don't think the geography of the place is out of tune with Azeroth either.

And somehow, if I really sat down and took a magnifying glass to the Pandaren lore and looked to actual Chinese culture, there would probably be some very real differences as well.

---------- Post added 2013-05-07 at 09:54 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Moradim

pandaria is ok, it just isnt as nice as outland or especially northrend.

I think it's different, but not neccisarily better or worse. All three have very distinct feels to them, so its hard for me to compare side by side. I'd say Pandaria is the most beautiful of them though.

MoP is stupid, almost as boring as Cata. I want to go back to dragons, demons and zombies! Pandas and boring content. SIGH, the leveling is SO boring, and the world is not at all interesting to explore. Please blizz, more dragons and demons, less girly thingies!

The theme was good, the story for Pandaria was great, the Alliance/Horde war storyline... 5.1 was good, 5.2 was pretty cool, 5.3... well that sucked badly (for the Alliance side at least, Horde got a pretty awesome quest with the rebellion hitting Razorhill & all, all we got was to play with a mechanical cat)